How cool and surprising would it have been if instead of Double Dan being the virus expert, it was Turbo? Even if it was just for that one scene I wouldn't hate the movie so much. It doesn't matter, this next part is going in a completely different direction anyway.

Chapter 7: Reunion

Planet Emu. What a strange name, thought Turbo. But when he arrived at the website he saw why it was called that.

Cartoonish-looking emus of different colours were running around in corrals and acting like, well, emus. Each one sported a collar and tag around their neck.

Did one of the emus contact him? Turbo leaned over the corral fence and called out, "Hey! Someone wanted to meet me? I'm here now!"

"Hahaha! Silly bloke, emulators can't talk."

He turned to see a netizen dressed like some kind of wrangler. "I'm the head of Planet Emu. Name's Steve," he introduced in his Australian accent. "How can I help ya, mate?"

"Ok… What's an emulator?"

Steve explained, "An emulator is something that makes a computer imitate, or emulate, another system. That way, people can run software designed for something else, like an arcade machine."

"Is that even legal?"

"This isn't some sort of black market. Just think of it as preserving an endangered species! Look, someone might purchase one now."

Turbo watched one net user walk into a corral and examine the tag on an emu. Seeming satisfied, a leash appeared in his hand already attached to the emu's collar. He led the emu out of the corral and over to what looked like a grain silo. After filling a bag with 0's and 1's, he began feeding the emulator.

"See? Now that human will be able to play Gauntlet right on his PC!"

"Really?" Turbo gazed in wonder. "It's that easy?"

Steve chuckled. "Downloading's the easy part. The hard part is getting the games. First, you need to get a well-preserved copy of a game's ROM. In the case of rare games, they're hard to come by, so the emulators can't run them." He gestured behind Turbo. "Just ask those poor fellas. They've been here for decades."

Turbo turned around, and his heart jumped when he saw who was there.

It… It can't be…

Sitting among a row of stables were Shift and Drift.

Turbo inched towards the Turbo Time twins with wide-open eyes, fearing that if he blinked they would disappear like figments of his imagination. His heart gave a disappointed twinge as he thought, No, it's not them. These have to be from another console. But he couldn't ignore the feeling in his chest that drew him closer with utmost inquisitiveness.

They looked up at him when they saw him approach, and they quickly rose to their feet. "It's him," Shift whispered to his brother, clutching his arm without taking his eyes off Turbo.

He stopped an arm's length away, not sure where to begin.

After a brief hesitation, Drift said, "So you got our message?"

He blinked in surprise. "You wanted me to come here?"

"Sorry we didn't say more, but, well, we didn't know how you'd react," Shift stammered, sounding nervous all of a sudden. "We weren't sure if you already had a game, or-or if you didn't want to-"

"Whoa, take it easy," Turbo soothed. "What's going on?"

While Shift calmed his breathing, Drift recounted, "Our game was unplugged a long time ago. It all happened so fast; we didn't get out in time. We woke up a few years later in someone's PC. But Turbo, our Turbo…" He glanced at the floor with a shake of his head. "He didn't make it."

Turbo frowned in sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"For years our owner has been trying to run our game on an emulator, but without Turbo's code it's impossible."

Shift gave a little smile and went on, "Then when we heard about a Turbo traveling the Internet, we thought you might be able to help us. But you seemed so focused on raising money, so we decided to help you first."

Drift added, "I hope you don't mind, but we promoted your content on various social media sites until you got enough."

"Wait, you-" Turbo gaped. "You guys… were the reason I got the money so fast?" He slapped a hand over his forehead. "Social media! Why didn't I think of that?"

Shift asked in concern, "Are you mad?"

Turbo let out a delighted laugh and said with a grin, "Mad? I'm thrilled! I won a bet thanks to you!" Or at the very least, had been able to tie. "So, how can I help you?"

Shift and Drift beamed at each other, then the former answered, "Come join our game!"

At this, Turbo faltered. "What?"

"The game's code is only complete if you're in it, Turbo," Drift explained. "Now that you're here, we can finally be played with again!"

Turbo looked away, words stuck on his tongue. "I… I can't…"

Drift sighed and turned to Shift sadly. "He still has a game…"

"Wait, no—I mean, kinda—look, it's complicated." Turbo shook his head. "Guys, you don't want me in your game. I don't know what your Turbo was like, but I'm probably worse than him." He looked at them grimly. "You wanna know what happened to my game? In my jealousy I game-jumped into a copy of Roadblasters and crashed it. Before I could return, both games got unplugged." He shut his eyes, his voice starting to break. "I didn't mean for it to happen. It was my own stupid fault, but my Shift and Drift paid the price with their lives. I'd give anything to bring them back…"

They were silent. When Turbo dared to look at them again, their mouths and yellow eyes were wide in shock.

He knew it. They hated him already.

"…Turbo?"

His breath hitched. The way they said his name indicated more than just a familiarity with his character; they knew him. Which meant he knew them. And that meant…

Shift and Drift are alive?!

Turbo gulped, matching their expressions. Before he could say anything else, they threw their arms around him in a double hug. At first he was taken aback; weren't they angry with him? But relief that the twins were alive all this time overwhelmed him and he hugged them back. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "You probably don't believe me, but-"

"Are you kidding?" They pulled away and Shift said, "If you hadn't meant it, you wouldn't have said all that stuff about the unplugging!"

"At first we were mad at you," the other twin spoke up, "and we thought you got what you deserved. But after a while of it just being the two of us, we realized… We missed you."

Turbo softened. "You did?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, look at us." Drift gestured to his mirror image. "We're almost exactly the same, even down to the way we race. But with you in the mix, things get interesting."

There was that compliment again. Maybe Vanellope had actually been right to think of her game as boring without him. But of course it made sense! He was the star in both games he lived in. He was the reason gamers kept coming back. He was interesting. But then, as it so often happened, his initial pride was interrupted by the conscience he developed over the years. "So… you wanted me back, even though I was such a jerk?"

"Of course we didn't like how you acted sometimes, but we still looked up to you and recognized your importance to the game."

Shift admitted, "And it was fun to get back at you with pranks."

Turbo chuckled at the memories he didn't realize he held so fondly. "Yeah, I did deserve that."

"But you're different now," Drift noted. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem a lot nicer."

"Well, I've been on a journey of my own that's apparently still going on. To make a long story short, I took a kid under my wing and joined a therapy group. That seems to be the winning formula for turning your life around."

They laughed, and Turbo could tell they weren't sure if he was making a joke or just a funny observation.

"I missed you too," he told them, surprising himself at how easily the words came out. "And I hope you can forgive me."

"We forgive you, Turbo," Shift assured, a tear falling down his cheek.

Turbo felt his own eyes well up, but he didn't care if he cried. He had his twin brothers back, and he was not going to let them down again.

But his dilemma…

"What is it?" they asked, noticing his sudden frown.

"I wanna help you guys, I really do." He sighed, hating that he sounded so hesitant after being overjoyed at reuniting with them. "But I have good friends in the arcade. If I just leave them so suddenly…"

"…Oh."

Their disappointment crushed him. "No, don't worry. I'll make this work out, I promise. I'm travelling with Ralph, you remember Wreck-it Ralph?" They nodded. "I'm gonna go talk to him and see if he has any suggestions on this. Ok?" Turbo started to back away.

Shift clung to his sleeve, but then slowly let go.

"I promise I'll come back," Turbo insisted. He kept facing them as long as he could before he turned and left the site.

His mind didn't stop whirling the whole ride over. Shift and Drift were alive, and they wanted him to be part of Turbo Time again. He could be the star of his home game and live with the twins as if everything had gone back to normal.

Except he'd have to give up his friends and the life he worked so hard to achieve. He already promised Taffyta he'd come back, but what was the point of returning only to tell her he was leaving for good? He couldn't do that to her.

But he couldn't abandon the twins, either. It was an impossible choice, one that Turbo kept thinking in circles about. Was this how Vanellope felt? With a groan he realized he had to deal with her problem first.

Not soon enough he arrived at Slaughter Race, but to his horror the outside of the game was glitching uncontrollably. "What happened?" he demanded, running up to Spamley, who was watching helplessly. "Where's Ralph?"

"H-he went in there looking for his little friend," the green man replied anxiously. "But the game's gonna reset in 5 seconds!"

"What?!"

"It was all Ralph's idea, I swear!" Spamley zipped away before Turbo could question him further.

The white racer stared at the entrance desperately. "Come on, Ralph, get her out of there! She shouldn't even be in there without adding her code to the game!"

He tensed when he heard the rest of the countdown to reset, "…2, 1. Reboot in progress."

Ralph crashed through the wall right before the announcer finished speaking.

Turbo let out the breath he'd been holding. He ran over as Ralph set an unconscious Vanellope down. "Is she ok?"

"I don't know." Ralph held up her head and gently prodded her. "Come on, Vanellope. Wake up."

She stirred, then opened her eyes halfway. "Ralph?" she rasped.

The wrecker sighed in relief. "There you are. You ok, kid?"

But her eyes moistened with tears and she wept, "Ralph, I messed up so bad…"

"You can say that again," Turbo muttered, but was quickly silenced with a glare from Ralph.

"No. No, you didn't. It's ok," he tried comforting.

"It's all because of me and my glitch." Vanellope's face crumpled into another fit of sobs. "I should've just stayed with you instead of following some stupid dream! I've ruined everything!"

"No, kid, no." Ralph's voice was full of regret as he said, "Look, I didn't mean for it to happen like this. It's not supposed to be this bad."

Vanellope sniffed and asked, "You didn't mean for what to happen?"

Turbo narrowed his eyes at him. "Yeah, what?"

Ralph winced and replied guiltily, "I might have, kind of, sort of, put a harmless little virus in the game."

"A virus?!" the two of them repeated.

Vanellope hardened her gaze. "You did this? I would expect something like this from Turbo, not you!"

"I'm right here," Turbo pointed out sourly. "And Ralph, you and I both know firsthand how dangerous viruses are! Why would you even risk it?"

"It's not like you were here to help," Ralph huffed. He turned his attention to Vanellope. "And besides, I wouldn't have done anything if I hadn't heard you tell Shank that you wanted to live in Slaughter Race forever!"

She narrowed her eyes in disgust. "So you were spying on me?"

Ralph put his hands on his hips. "Don't change the subject! You aren't exactly innocent here. You were gonna ditch everybody and abandon Sugar Rush!"

Turbo gasped as realization set in, and he rounded on her. "I never thought I'd have to say this to you, but you're going Turbo!"

Vanellope scoffed. "Come on, is it Turbo to want more out of life?"

"Yes!" both he and Ralph answered without hesitation.

"It's not like I'm taking over Shank's game and trying to kill her!" she spat, glaring begrudgingly at Turbo.

Her resentful statement stung him more than he thought it would, and Turbo clenched his fists at her indifference. "Well if I had known you'd get bored of your game in a few years I would've just waited for you to leave on your own before taking over! Why would you even leave? You have it all! What more could you want?"

"How about more freedom, or a challenge once in a while, or I don't know, maybe a game that doesn't get unplugged?!"

"Oh, you think Slaughter Race is gonna be around forever? Why don't you ask the guys in the Delisted shelter?" He briefly pictured Vanellope living alongside them in a cardboard box after the inevitable fall of her new game, but it didn't have time to make him feel better because he couldn't help exclaiming in frustration, "I can't believe you're being so selfish!"

"Me?" She looked incredulous. "The only reason you want me to stay is to make you playable! Who's being selfish here?"

"That's not true! You have responsibilities; Sugar Rush depends on you!"

"Oh please, I'm one of 16 racers. They'd never miss me, least of all you."

"What about your friends?" Ralph brought up. "What about me?"

Vanellope turned her furious glare to him and stomped over. "Why would I ever want to spend another second with you after what you did?!" She ripped the cookie medal off Ralph's neck and threw it off the platform.

"No!" Ralph leaned over the railing but failed to catch the medal before it disappeared into the chasm.

That was the last straw for Turbo. "You know what? Fine! If you're gonna be like that, then I might as well join the un-dead Turbo Time twins in an emulator version of my game!" He started to march away.

He heard Ralph cry, "What? Turbo, wait!" but he kept going.

"Fine! See if I care!" was Vanellope's harsh response.

Stupid, spoiled glitch. Turbo continued to hear the girl scream at Ralph and he walked faster, too livid to defend him. It was partially his fault anyway. Then again, if Turbo had been there… Well, it was too late to feel guilty. With great difficulty he pushed down the pang he felt when the last thing he heard before he went too far was Ralph begging Vanellope not to leave him.

This was the point in the movie that really lost me. Vanellope what happened?! You used to be so likeable! Sorry, but I just really hated how her character arc was handled (Ralph's wasn't great either). I know there's some debate as to whether or not she went Turbo, but I'm going by the first movie's definition, so in my opinion she did. This isn't the place for a rant, so just look up any comments criticizing her and that's pretty much how I feel.

Also I'm aware how coincidental it is that Turbo was able to find the same Turbo Time twins from his game, but I originally tried it with a different version of them and it just didn't feel right.